Barbarosa Ranchers

Yep, that is how last week seems to have gone - fast.

Time flies, and that certainly is how last week went for me. I still don’t quite believe that it is Monday all over again, but I guess I have to believe the calendar. I still feel like it is Tues or Wednesday of last week and that I have another couple of days to finish all the things that needed to get done last week. What a vain hope that was. Luckily, I got most of last week’s important tasks done, but now I am facing this week’s tasks. So after a little procrastination on this post, off to the salt mines I go.

Looking back on last week, I can see how I lost track of the date. I was doing several pretty cool, fun and interesting things on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday: I signed up for a Holistic Management Financial Planning workshop and this was my second meeting. We have been using Holistic Management practices on Big Bluff Ranch for over 20 years and it has been the saving grace for the ranch. Without using this decision framework, we would have gone the way of most too-small ranches and sold it to a developer or hobby rancher many years ago.  I signed up to take the financial planning module again (for the third time, I think) because every time you go to one of these seminars something new strikes you and you develop a deeper understanding of yourself and what you want to achivieve in life.

In a very quick nutshell, here is how Holistic Managment works:

1. Define the Whole under Management
   1. What is the sphere of reality that you are attempting to manage.
2. Create a temporary Holistic Goal comprising of Quality of Life, Forms of Production, and Future Resource Base
   1. To what end are you managing for?
   2. Taking into account social, economic, and environmental factors
3. Create Financial Plan
   1. Create a plan that allows you to test expenses against your goal
   2. In this manner, you are always sure that every expense you make brings you closer to your goal

I am likely doing a disservice with my nutshell as it is so short and so incomplete compared to the full decision framework. I haven’t talked about the testing guidelines, why the temporary holistic goal is so important, land planning, and so many other factors. All I can say is that is the best way to I have ever come across to manage your life.

Wednesday: Last spring, I graduated from the California Agriculture Leadership program, which is a two year long fellowship that takes agricultural type folks and prepares them for greater leadership role, not just in agriculture but in society. It is a truly life changing experience. Heck, I even found my wife via the program (she was in the same class as I)   Here is her website about our local alumni region.

On Wednesday, at the Colusa Farm Show, Agleadership sponsors a breakfast. Holly and I have both friends and classmates around Colusa, so this was a great opportunity to head down and have a smidgen of a social life. It was great, a nice dinner with Ben and Denise, breakfast with Eric and Joel, walking the farm show with “Johnny” and working the Agleader booth with Nicole. But a ranch boy can only handle so much social time before it is time to head for the hills and get some work done.

Which is what I did, get work done, on Thursday and Friday, but it was the kind of work where stuff got done, but when you look back, you aren’t quite sure what you did. Then the weekend came along and now it is Monday, and time to start all over again.

Today is sunny, I have an overflowing inbox, and Holly just got us video editing software. In other words, I have no idea what I am going to do; work outside in the sun, answer all of the emails, or play with my new software. I guess I will just have to do it all.